If this is your first visit, welcome! Please note that you will need to
register
to use many of the site's best features, including downloading files and
posting messages. Until you register you can read any of the articles on
this page and also read messages in the forums.

Need help getting started? Please read our
Help For New Flightsimmers.
This will give you the info you need to get started flying and using
this web site.

In the flight simulator world we can choose our weather, time of date, season and so on and take the exact flight we want. In the real world--things happen. Real world pilots of course do plenty of flight planning but events can occur that throw off the best plans, sometimes ending up with the plane landing somewhere other than intended. Airline captain Tony Vallillo shares several "diversionary tales" from his long career.

Stuart Outram writes to introduce you to The Millennium Aviation Company, or Mac Air VA, a virtual airline designed to meet the needs of any flight simulator pilot. Mac Air offers an open division where you can fly pretty much whatever you want, a historical division for those wishing to fly back in time and for those looking for the most authentic career path possible a professional division.

Flightsim pilots enjoy having accurate, and accurately depicted, weather while flying. But have you ever stopped to think what is involved within the flight simulator to make that happen? Thorsten Renk explains how weather is handled within FlightGear, covering both how it affects how your plane moves through the air but also how it affects how the world around you looks.

Following on from his earlier article introducing the Civil Air Patrol (CAP), Tony Vallillo offers this story of a real CAP mission. As anyone who follows the news is aware, Puerto Rico was hit hard by Hurricane Maria and CAP was called in to help. This involved getting a light plane to the island in order to conduct a variety of photo recon flights. Tony tells the story of how he and other CAP members accomplished this mission, one you can duplicate with your flight simulator. Part 2 continues the mission, with the plane and crew now on the island and ready to get to work.

Following on from his earlier article introducing the Civil Air Patrol (CAP), Tony Vallillo offers this story of a real CAP mission. As anyone who follows the news is aware, Puerto Rico was hit hard by Hurricane Maria and CAP was called in to help. This involved getting a light plane to the island in order to conduct a variety of photo recon flights. Tony tells the story of how he and other CAP members accomplished this mission, one you can duplicate with your flight simulator.

Allan Jones brings us a story that combines some real aviation history and some flight simulation. Learn about WWII pilot Joy Lofthouse and the Air Transport Auxiliary who delivered newly built military aircraft. Then take on the challenge of an FSX flight in WWII Great Britain, flying VFR only through limited "balloon lanes".

So, what do you do to stay in aviation after a career in the Air Force and with the airlines comes to an end? Tony Vallillo found his answer in the Civil Air Patrol, an auxiliary of the USAF that conducts search and rescue and other missions. It gives his flying a purpose beyond the hunt for the hundred dollar hamburger. In this first of two articles, Tony gives a bit of CAP history and introduces some search techniques -- which you can try yourself on your flight simulator.

Here's something a little different, a short story that Ian Radcliffe wrote some years ago on a subject most flightsimmers have probably thought about at some time or other. See what happens when the story subject tries to take his flying skills to the next level...

Continuing the latest trip in his "Going Places" series, Rodolfo Astrada, having left from Germany with the ultimate destination of Johannesburg, now continues across Africa, following the path of a Lufthansa Cargo flight. Along the way, as before, he weaves in stories which this time include consideration of how earlier travelers would have taking flying boats like the Short Empire or Sunderland.

Starting a new trip in his "Going Places" series, Rodolfo Astrada leaves from Germany with the ultimate destination of Johannesburg, following the path of a Lufthansa Cargo flight. Along the way, as before, he weaves in stories which this time include military history, memories of past combat flight simulators and even Greek gods.